News

New rules on renewables, energy efficiency and the governance of the Energy Union have been signed off by the European Parliament today – an important step in enabling the European Union and its Member States to embrace the clean energy transition, follow up on the already adopted 2030 climate legislation and meet the Paris Agreement commitments.

Adapting the EU regions and economic sectors to the impacts of climate change is now more urgent than forecast in the EU’s 2013 adaptation strategy. This is one of the key findings of the Commission’s evaluation of the strategy published today. The analysis results in a report on lessons learned and reflections on improvements for future action.

Today the Commission adopted a delegated regulation amending the ETS Auctioning Regulation to list Germany’s next opt-out auction platform and to establish arrangements for monetising a first batch of 50 million allowances, to enable a timely start of the Innovation Fund in 2020.

The European Union reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 22% between 1990 and 2017, while the economy grew by 58% over the same period. According to the new EU climate action progress report, however, amid robust economic growth, emissions increased slightly by 0.6 % between 2016 and 2017, mainly in transport and industry.

The European Commission has approved an investment package of € 243 million from the EU budget for projects under the LIFE programme supporting nature, the environment and quality of life in Europe's transition to a more sustainable and low-carbon future.

Ahead of the next UN climate conference (COP24), Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete will take part in a ministerial dialogue on climate change known as 'pre-COP' in Kraków, Poland, on 23-24 October.

At the second Eastern Partnership (EaP) formal ministerial meeting on environment and climate change today in Luxembourg, the EU and the Eastern Partner countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine) reaffirmed the need to keep environment and climate action high on political and economic agendas.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has today issued its Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways. The report provides policy-makers across the globe with a strong scientific basis for their efforts to modernise the economy, tackle climate change, promote sustainable development and eradicate poverty.